Tony Shalhoub acts out the life of "Adrian Monk" who playes the part of San Francisco Police detective; this is a man who has suffered the serious trauma and nervous breakdown after his wife is murdered. Played opposite his sultry Nurse who helps him to be able to leave the house and work major cases and solve crimes. It is an expose of his ability to follow seemingly insignificant details, clues which are given emphasis by means of his obsessive-compulsive disorder. His mental health issues are the axiom by which the dark-comedy or new-american dramady has grown into one of my all-time favorite television viewing experiences since "Murder She Wrote".

Monk's compulsive habits are so numerous, along with the number of phobias the show revolves around his perpetual need for cleanliness, order and personally defined structure of perfection. The "quirks" in his personality add to the drama, when he is forced to overcome his own fears in order to accomplish the seemingly unbelieveable. During the individual investigations, episodes range from personal crisis in his life, to action packed adventures where we get to understand a little bit of ourselves in the while swept up in the storyline.